Cinema: Brave Cuts at a Knuckle Ball EIGHT MEN OUT

Directed and Written by John Sayles

There was a time when the Black Sox Scandal was central to the moral education of young American males. The fact that it involved baseball players -- members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox -- who conspired with gamblers to throw the World Series (no less) struck at the very center of boyhood. The fact that the consequence of the act was so dire -- permanent banishment from baseball -- in comparison with the paltry rewards (a few thousand dollars to each man) imparted ironic force to the story. And then there were the poignant sidebars: the little boy crying "Say...